Planted there on the 17th tee box. I bet Pebble Beach golf club is sorry they ever gave him a membership.posted by surplus at 11:48 AM on January 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'm only commenting to make a point without making it. Thank you.posted by carsonb at 11:50 AM on January 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

I really expected him to make up another classic Busey acronym. Like HOBBITS stand for Humans Of Bitty Burliness In The Shire.posted by inturnaround at 11:50 AM on January 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

For once YouTube comments are worth reading here:

For those uninformed, Gary Busey was in a rather serious motorcycle accident in 1988 which caused permanent brain damage, weakening his mental "filters" and﻿ causing him to speak and act impulsively. While listening to someone ramble on about hobbits is comical, in his situation I can't help but feel bad for this man.posted by KokuRyu at 11:50 AM on January 14, 2013 [14 favorites]

Yeah, reading that comment just made the clip sad.posted by papercake at 11:52 AM on January 14, 2013

Yeah, the guy is working all the time, I mean, look at that filmography... and he's still a million bucks in the hole, with no way out. He's pretty well liked in the industry as a "fun" guy, hence all the roles thrown his way... but he's definitely more tragic than comical.posted by Slap*Happy at 12:06 PM on January 14, 2013

KokuRyu, I thought that was a joke comment, but it is correct.

Yeah, I didn't think it was a joke comment, I just thought it was worth pointing out that just because Busey is a star, he doesn't really deserve to be made fun of.

On the other hand, the guy has consistently worked in movies and television even after his accident, which indicates he is employable (he shows up, remembers his lines, and is easy to work with - attributes which must help an agent land roles). And a lot of highly paid stars, including professional sports figures, end up broke and bankrupt.

So maybe part of it is an act? Gary Busey playing Gary Busey?posted by KokuRyu at 12:08 PM on January 14, 2013

IANAN, but it seems like it's both an act and genuine malaise. It seems like he's being taken advantage of to some extent, but on the other hand he wants to work. I derive little joy from seeing his addled antics offered up for amusement, however.posted by Burhanistan at 12:22 PM on January 14, 2013 [2 favorites]

The LA Times article about the motorcycle accident seems to indicate that he was having trouble even before then:

But success overwhelmed him, and by his own admission, he lost his bearings. His weight ballooned, as did his drug and alcohol use.posted by kagredon at 12:28 PM on January 14, 2013

I'm kind of impressed he came up with all that either off the cuff, or sat down and thought up some alternate hobbit lore. Who knows why he came up with that, or why he put it on YouTube. People point and laugh at anything on the Internet, he shouldn't let that stop him.posted by Ad hominem at 12:39 PM on January 14, 2013

It really feels like a point and laugh situation....

I don't know; I thought this particular video was kind of sweet. He wasn't bad crazy; he was just a man sitting on a sunny hill with his cigar and his iPad contemplating Hobbits. I've had scarier encounters at sci-fi conventions. And since the video was distributed by TheBuseyZone, I assume it was distributed with Busey's consent.

To the broader point of Gary Busey becoming a sort of holy fool of the internets, I'm torn between thinking that it's icky and thinking that, like William Shatner, there goes a man who really knows how to capitalize on his liabilities.posted by octobersurprise at 1:22 PM on January 14, 2013 [3 favorites]

I think he's getting the dwarves and hobbits confused. Clearly spent too much time in the appendixes of LOTR, where the whole male / female dwarf thing is briefly covered. (Female Tolkein dwarves have beards too, just like in Pratchett or Coney Island).posted by jenkinsEar at 1:23 PM on January 14, 2013

I don't usually need celebrity explanation of hobbits, but when I do, I use Leonard Nimoy.

"there goes a man who really knows how to capitalize on his liabilities."

Ya know, if I was certain that Gary was the one that was capitalizing on this, I would say, good for him, but, too often out there, that's not the case.....posted by HuronBob at 1:52 PM on January 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

Back when I worked in retail, we had a female customer who had superhuman hearing, A BOOMING VOICE, and few social filters. (At one point she overheard me talking to a coworker about where to go to lunch and YELLED across the store that we shouldn't go to a particular sandwich shop, as "it gave [her] the runs".)

Relevant to this thread? She was also a dead ringer for Gary Busey. Like, if you stuck a fright wig on Busey and had him wear some mom jeans, you would have this woman.posted by pxe2000 at 1:55 PM on January 14, 2013

In light of that, I'm with Busey is a lot less amusing, and more of a cautionary tale for those who don't wear a helmet while on a motorcycle.

Regarding the I'm With Busey show:

The show made an effort to appear to be as completely real as possible. However, it was later revealed that much of the show was improvisation. Busey and de la Peña would agree on a scene's contents, and then improvise their lines. The show became increasingly bizarre as it went on, reflecting either a conscious decision by the actors to gradually let the audience into that world, or greater familiarity with the concept.

I'm pretty impressed that he could improvise to that point with a prior head injury. Obviously something's been lost, but he still has a lot on the ball.posted by BlueHorse at 4:45 PM on January 14, 2013

I laughed, but I didn't point, and Gary probably laughed too when he watched this video. I love Hobbits too, and I'd love to have the self confidence to say whatever bizarre thing pops into my head about any number of topics, including Hobbits.posted by Brocktoon at 5:46 PM on January 14, 2013

In that strange offshoot of the acting profession, the professional wrestling world, where the boundaries between real and fake are intentionally (for the sake of profit) blurred in every aspect, and where exists a particular parlance for many unique and some universal phenomena of mind and culture, there is the term "living the gimmick", which refers to that stage at which a performer has become invested more in his character than in his real life self.

Given the life-swallowing demands of the wrestler's career, in which it behooves him to be always 'on', when the so-called 'fake' performance causes actual pain requiring actual drugs to survive, and when his in-ring character was never wholly fictive but in truth just an amplification of his real, genuine self, and the fake identity's success also the real self's success, is it so crazy that a man starts, say, wearing a pink feather boa as casual wear, constantly shouting "Wooo!" and strutting ostentatiously about in everyday life? It works every night in the ring, might as well keep doing it between times.

I can see a similar process happening to actors (perhaps formalised in the Method? I don't know enough to comment). When your everyday life is an entertaining illusion, you eventually become an illusion. Hence, you're living the gimmick. You're not really lying by inhabiting a constructed personality, because the constructed personality has become the only one you have. Where does the real Gary Busey end and the fake one begin, when they have been one and the same for so long? Is he genuinely crazy? Is he acting crazy? What if he's both? Does that make him neither? Does he have to go a little crazy to stop from going totally crazy? Nobody, not he himself, neither his shrink nor his neurologist, can say for sure. He's just living the gimmick. It's entertaining and brilliant and fascinating, and at the same time it's weird and sad and demented. It's the fate imposed upon the performer by the demands of a life dedicated to performance.

And while it's all a big zero sum game in the end, there's probably no other path to conjuring forth this from yourself. Maybe the pay-off in the Faustian deal of discarding your real self for a construct is that, for a while, you get to be really fucking good before you become a joke.posted by Kandarp Von Bontee at 5:47 PM on January 14, 2013 [2 favorites]

Without, I might add, getting accused of having brain damage, whether I have it or not.posted by Brocktoon at 5:48 PM on January 14, 2013

Busey... um, hmmm. How do I... I mean... He's umm...

Ok. Let me get my head together here, because trying to comment succinctly on Busey's phenomenon (as saying 'act' is not accurate, nor is 'condition' appropriate) causes my mind to just disassemble itself.

I find the man at times fascinating, inspiring, entertaining, threatening, disturbing, and a wellspring of alternate perspectives. Busey's role in this world has in a way evolved from a actor into a somewhat Zen-like event/happening. Whenever I feel like this reality is just not weird enough for me, it is Busey who can be relied upon be be out there, somewhere, doing something entirely unfathomable for reasons that, most of the time, seem logical and practical only to him and him alone. He is a Zen koan in the form of a person.

This is not to say I believe him to be as 'crazy' as he presents himself to be at times. To just call him 'crazy' is to shortchange and dismiss his skills and talent as an actor and artist. I have heard stories of him being a very professional and precise actor who takes himself and his work seriously, even today. The fact that he is able to blur the line of where premeditated action starts and bizarre begins so well is evidence of a skill few can accomplish. He seems sometimes to be able to channel that 'bizarre' like a Jedi does with the force - it flows through him; it obeys his commands, yet he can be comfortable enough to let it take control at times.

He's had his ups and downs, tragedies, mistakes and successes, but after all these years he's still around, filled with wonder and awe at the universe he finds himself in, in a search to figure it out just enough to let it just... be.

I don't know about you, but I take comfort in that. It's good knowing he's out there, The Busey, scouting ahead on a dangerous and disused road to another dimension for all us travelers.

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